§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what value he places on the number of butterflies as an indicator group of the state of biodiversity of species; [9297]
(2) what proposals he has to monitor the number of rare and common butterflies; and what new proposals he has to establish new butterfly conservation areas; [9298]
(3) his Department will respond to the biodiversity steering group's recent published report; [9299]
(4) what proposals he has to honour the United Kingdom's commitments made at the Rio de Janeiro earth summit in regard to butterfly and moth conservation. [9300]
§ Mr. ClappisonThe United Kingdom was one of the first countries to produce a national biodiversity plan when "Biodiversity: The UK Action Plan" was published in January 1994.
The biodiversity steering group, chaired by my Department, with members drawn from all sectors, published its findings on 13 December 1995. "Biodiversity: The UK Steering Group Report", identifies 25 butterfly and 122 moth species whose populations should be monitored where practicable. The report includes costed action plans for seven of the butterflies and three of the moths and recommends that costed action plans for a further three butterflies and 50 moths be produced within three years. The Government expect to publish their response to the report in the spring of 1996.
On 8 January, two further candidate special areas of conservation for the conservation of the marsh fritillary butterfly were submitted to the European Commission. In all six candidate SACs for this species have been notified to the European Commission. Butterflies will be one of the groups of species used in the preliminary package of UK indicators of sustainable development which my Department will publish in the early spring of 1996.